Darrieus, Georges Jeans Mary

Georges Jeans Mary Darrieus (1888-1979), a French engineer who designed the first modern vertical axis wind turbine (patented 1931). Of the several rotors Darrieus designed, the most important is a rotor made of slender, curved, airfoil-section blades attached at the top and bottom of a rotating vertical tube. Compared to the more common horizontal axis turbine, the Darrieus turbine design has several attractive features. First, the blade operates at very high tension, so a relatively light, inexpensive blade is sufficient. Second, by locating the power train, generator, and controls near ground level, they are easier to construct and maintain. Howerver, a disadvantage of the Darrieus turbine is that it is not typically self-starting, requiring an induction motor connected to the local power network to initiate operation.